1 - reduce quantity of nodes

This will consolidate the community into more conflicts, and discourage guilds who just place forts on empty uncontested nodes in hopes of free wins. We could probably cut node count almost in half and still not feel overcrowded. Anyway, sniping is kinda fun (there is a bit of an art to it, running around in ghillies coordianting what nodes still have 0-1 forts, what your best shot is), but I don't think it's the way you want the scene to really be. 

2 - reduce complexity of T1 easy/medium/hard and T2, T3, T4.

The community already considers Nodewar to be "T1" or "T2+." There is no such thing as a "T1 Medium" guild, there are just T1 guilds. There is no such thing as a "T3 guild," there are just T2+ guilds. So update the map and update the rules to match what the community already understands -- there is T1, and T2. Give T1 a single AP/DP cap, and with T2/3/4 all consolidated down to just "T2," update the rules for how to qualify for Siege placement (maybe you have to hold 2 nodes to qualify? idk, whatever) because T3/4 will no longer exist. Simplicity is nice. T1 is T1 and it's got gear-caps, T2 is T2 and gear is uncapped. Simple, right? In one sentence you can introduce a new player to the concept, no entire paragraphs of fine-print and ifs and buts. 

3 - allow war heroes in T1

Even if it's just 1 or 2 heroes it's fine. The gear is capped, and the purpose will be to allow friends of the guild to join in when there is a fun fight to be had. It'll be fun, let a T1 guild invite their friend from a T2 guild over, who cares?

4 - remove restrictions of which guilds can fight on which tiers

What if a guild could do T2s Monday through Thursday, and then do a T1 on Friday? Why not? Just let it happen. Bridge the communities more. 

5 - reduce participation caps across the board - no node more than 40 man. Let siege be the one exception. 

Using T1 as an exmaple, only a couple guilds in the past 6 months could regularly cap 55-man participation limits. 55-man nodes frequently featured fights with like, 30+25 across two guilds in a temporary truce versus 1 guild with 55 people. 40-man fights are much more easy to pull attendance together with 100-man guilds. I like the idea of not everyone in a guild needing to show up to every fight - relax the caps, it's so much easier for half the members to show up for half the nights (100 man guild filling 40-man fights), than it is for you to actually somehow round everyone up and get a huuuuge percent of your entire guild to show up for a fight. This makes it easier on guild leaders/officers, reducing burnout/stress. This also enables more guilds of more sizes to find more fair fights throughout the week without being steamrolled by the few guilds that DO pull huge numbers. And it also might even encourage some of the larger guilds to split up, adding more diversity to the scene. 

Anyway I am just one guy with a very limited view of the scene. Other wiser people talk more about possible NW changes than me. I think changes are needed and hope Pearl Abyss is thinking about both, "what would be cool" and "what would encourage the existing community to grow and sustain?"